1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for combining at least two images with each other. This invention particularly relates to an apparatus and a method for combining a newly acquired digital image and a digital image, which has been stored previously, with each other in accordance with a specified design.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Techniques for composing a single digital image of a desired design from digital images of photographs, characters, illustrations, and the like, and printing, displaying, or storing the composed digital image have heretofore been carried out in various fields. As an example of a method for specifying the desired design, a position and an attribute may be specified for each of the digital images on a display screen. In a different popular method for specifying the desired design, in cases where a single design is to be used repeatedly or in cases where the composition of many images must be carried out quickly, several pieces of defining information, which define different designs, are stored previously, and one of the several pieces of defining information is selected when necessary. A composing apparatus carries out a composition processing in accordance with the selected defining information.
A composing method and a composing apparatus are described in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7(1995)-221975. This publication discloses an image composing and printing apparatus for business use, which are used for printing a digital image of a desired design on a greeting card, a T-shirt, a coffee cup, or the like. In the disclosed composing apparatus and method, several digital images (serving as first digital images) are stored previously. The digital images respectively have a plurality of output formats. The operator selects a desired format from the plurality of the output formats, and the digital image in the desired format is outputted. At this time, the output format is the one specifying a position on the first digital image, at which a digital image (serving as a second digital image) newly acquired with a scanner, or the like, is to be located. The position of the second digital image is specified as a position relative to the first digital image. In such cases, the first digital image has specific coordinates for the location of the second digital image. Therefore, in order for the second digital image to be located at one of different positions on the same first digital image, the first digital image must be stored previously with respect to each of the different positions of the second digital image.
With the disclosed composing apparatus and method, for example, in cases where a photograph of a soccer player is to be embedded between a pattern of a soccer ball and a pattern of a mascot of a corporation owning a professional soccer team, and the resulting composed image is to be printed on a T-shirt, a digital image, which is constituted of the pattern of the soccer ball and the pattern of the mascot of the corporation owning the professional soccer team, is stored previously for each of different corporations, and at least one output format for specifying the position of the photograph to be embedded is prepared for each of the digital images with respect to the different corporations. Specifically, even if the difference between the pattern for a corporation A and the pattern for a corporation B resides in the pattern of the mascot alone, the digital images, each of which contains both of the pattern of the soccer ball and the pattern of the mascot, must be stored previously.
The technique described above is efficient in cases where the kinds of the composed patterns are limited to a comparatively small number of kinds. However, in cases where a wide variety of designs are to be furnished such that various demands of customers may be satisfied, the problems described below are encountered. For example, as described above, in cases where a composed image for a new corporation owning a professional soccer team is to be obtained, even if only the pattern of the mascot varies between the composed image for the new corporation and composed images for other corporations, a digital image containing both of the pattern of the soccer ball and the pattern of the mascot of the new corporation must be prepared and stored previously as the first digital image. Also, in cases where a plurality of designs varying in relationship between the position of the soccer ball pattern and the position of the mascot pattern are to be furnished for a single corporation owning a professional soccer team, the first digital image must be prepared for each of the different relationships between the position of the soccer ball pattern and the position of the mascot pattern. Specifically, from the view point of the storage capacity and the time and labor required to support new first digital images, the kinds of the patterns and the formats must be limited to a comparatively small number of kinds. Therefore, with the technique described above, demands of customers cannot be satisfied sufficiently.